The Son of Sobek
by blue rain rhapsody
Summary: Carter was lost in a swamp trying to find the mysterious crocodile that his girlfriend sent him to go catch. And then when he is accidentally swallowed by the creature, a strange boy with an orange camp t shirt named Percy Jackson comes to save him, and the two grudgingly team up to take out the crocodile that brought them there in the first place. Oneshot.


**Title**: The Son of Sobek

**Rating**: K+ (My humor is warped mwahaha)

**Characters**: Carter Kane, Percy Jackson (&some crazy crocodile gods)

**Disclaimer**: Rick Riordan owns BOTH Percy Jackson/The Heroes of Olympus & The Kane Chronicles.

**Summary**: Carter was lost in a swamp trying to find the mysterious crocodile that his girlfriend sent him to go catch. And then when he is accidentally swallowed by the creature, a strange boy with an orange camp t shirt named Percy Jackson comes to save him, and the two grudgingly team up to take out the crocodile that brought them there in the first place.

**A/N**- The official shipping name for Percy and Carter is PARTY!  
Okay just kidding. (But it could be.) So to set things straight, I've basically assumed that The Son of Sobek takes place the few months before Percy is kidnapped. The reason I think this is because (a) Rick is a troll and doesn't want to let us off the hook so easy (b) When Percy showed up at the Roman camp, he had a tattered orange camp half blood shirt with the words so worn off he couldn't read them anymore. This also takes place the day after Percy "vanished" which makes me believe that when he "disappeared" he was actually chasing a crocodile, but then on his return trip the goddess captures him and he has his memory wiped and sent to the Wolf House for safekeeping.  
I tried to keep Carter as in-character as I could get. And Percy too. Not sure how well I succeeded, you guys can be the judges of that. (I was also surprised I haven't seen any Son of Sobek fanfictions floating around. Did anyone even _do _one? Oh well.) And I used actual text from Rick Riordan's excerpt of The Son of Sobek, so that is his writing. I hope you can see where that is. (Hint: It's pretty early on in the beginning.)  
I have a crack-fic version coming out soon after called The Son of Sofun. Crack-fic galore. That one is going to be _really _weird. Be sure to check it out!

So I give you, my _(strange) _interpretation of The Son of Sobek! Enjoy!

* * *

_**THE SON OF SOBEK**_

* * *

_CARTER_

* * *

TO BEGIN BEFORE I SAY ANYTHING ELSE: I BLAME THE CROCODILE. And the reason I say that is because 1.) _it was_, and 2.) I might have had the worst day that could possibly exist, which is saying a lot, given the fact we've been involved in lots of bad things; including the last major apocalypse. And we might even be heading into another one, but this whole thing was just so confusing and frustrating that I don't even know what is going to happen. Part of it [okay, a lot of it] is my fault, but I blame it on the crocodile. And maybe my own bad luck for making bad things happen. [Good thing Sadie isn't here, she would be all over this.]

In the morning at breakfast, Sadie nagged me (all sisterly _nag_, _nag_, _nag_) about that trip to Long Island we were supposed to be taking (or should have already), but I was holding back. Something in my gut was telling me to stay out of it, no matter what she claimed about sensing powerful magic in the area. Sometimes you just gotta leave things be, right? Sadie doesn't seem to get that concept, and I had already tried everything to convince her.

"Oh come on," she said, poking the side of my arm as if that would sway me. I made a noncommittal noise and spooned more cereal into my mouth, trying to ignore her. "Just one short visit, please? Pretty please, Carter? _Please_?"

Felix was walking on the side of the balcony and dangerously close to the edge. I was pretending to be too busy watching him and making sure he didn't take a dive, while pretending to be interested in the active conversation of silence at the table, and Sadie's master plot which no one especially cared for. (Especially me.) Uncle Amos had been on my side about investigating, something about 'not wanting to tip the balances of power.' I had good reason to respect his judgement, and as Sadie's most controlling power as older brother, I was doing my best to keep her under control and not going after other gods. I had done a good job so far.

I managed to tear my watchful gaze off Felix for a moment to look at the rest of what remained of the Manhattan crew. It was mostly me, Sadie, Felix, Jaz, Julian, a few younger magicians, maybe Amos if he had time, and the occasional Walt or Zia. I missed Zia a lot, but her and Walt had been issued a 'top secret mission' by the House of Life and hadn't been seen in a few weeks. I tried not to get too worried, but it was hard not to when she had strict orders not to give out any details to anyone. Even me. It was driving Sadie crazy too, but between the both of us we couldn't figure out what was so important they had to be sent away for. I assumed they would be back soon, so I tried not to let that get to me.

I was almost relieved when the scrying bowl had started bubbling and frothing oil, which meant we had an incoming message. I pushed my bowl towards the center of the table and stood up to receive it and continued my mission of ignoring Sadie.

For a minute it was just shimmering, and then I saw Zia's face gently rise from the oil. Her nose was scrunched up like she smelled something bad, or maybe it was something bothering her. Most likely the latter but I like to be optimistic. Although bad smelling things aren't too great either.

I was honestly just relieved to see her. "Zia?" I asked, putting my hand on the side of the bowl to steady it. The oil wouldn't stop moving.

"Carter," she let out a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to talk to you, me and Walt have been busy trying to capture this-"

The top violently stirred and disconnected for a minute. I held onto it more firmly, checking the underside to see if anything was shaking it. When I looked back, Zia looked even more concerned and was holding something in her hands as if trying to get a better connection like it was a cellphone. "Sorry about that," she said and managed to smile sadly. She was also pinching her nose like she smelled something horrible again. "It just...really smells. The thing we are tracking has a very powerful smell. Reptilian, sort of, kind of like a crocodile. Ugh, it smells like chicken soup made of dirty socks mixed with fish. _Yech_."

"Okay?" I said, but it was more of a question.

"I don't have much time," she said in a garbled message. "Something is interfering with my signal. Tell Sadie that Walt is fine, he's just up ahead. We're in some sort of labyrinth, but the exits are all sealed and we can't find the exit. You'll have to-" The message shook like the cavern was collapsing on top of her.

"Zia?" I gripped the side of the bowl. "Zia!"

Her face appeared one more time. "You'll find him at the river! He will be waiting for you, and you must stop him! Find him and do whatever it takes to stop him, search the river! Please, Car-"

The surface shimmered, agitated, like somebody had thrown a stone across the surface and the message disconnected. _Search the river_, she had said. _He's waiting for you_. There was also the helpful clue that he smelled a lot and something with crocodiles. Wonderful starting point.

I walked back at the table and noticed everyone was staring at me. We had moved the scrying bowl to the dinner table so occasionally we could 'have dinner' with long distance friends, or maybe get messages just from the table. Sadie was grinning.

"Sounds like a good time," she said, propping her legs and combat shoes on the table, hovering over Felix's tray of animal crackers. All the penguin shaped ones had been picked out and he was running around somewhere and probably leaving crumbs. "Can I come along?"

"Absolutely not," I said, heading to my room to grab my travel pack and maybe a weapon. "And don't think about sneaking after me, I'm taking Freak."

* * *

I'll confess this now; maybe I _should_ have brought Sadie along with me. It would have been nice to have some backup- and Freak kinda ditched me after I dropped off. Obviously to look for some rats or turkey or something equally delicious.

To be fair I worked him pretty hard. I searched all the rivers I could find- First the Hudson, then the East rivers, and kept skimming from the air and couldn't find anything.

But my [bad] luck was soon rewarded when I spotted it...or more like smelled it. It hit me in a wave of powerful stench and I gagged and almost drove my flying transport into the ground.

"Down here buddy," I eased Freak down the altitude and hopped off his back. I was about to tell him to stay, but my stubborn creature had enough of me and all my _flying _ and launched himself back into the sky.

I cursed and yelled at him to come back, but my ride home rode off into the horizon and left me in the middle of a swamp.

Taking a quick look around, I made my decision to start following whatever this was. Most likely a demon or a monster or something equally wonderful to fight, so I took my khopesh as an extra safety precaution.

Search the swamp. _Check_. Follow the smell. Oh yeah, and it smells _nasty_. I figured I must have been headed in the right direction because the smell was getting stronger.

The smell got so powerful I had to cup my hand over my nose and breathe in through my mouth. "Hey there whatever you are," I tried to call out to it. "Come here to Carter, he needs to just..."

And suddenly my entire body went into red-alert and something got me from behind.

* * *

Stupid, stupid, stupid, was all I could think. I had been surprise attacked and was being digested by a crocodile.

Sure, I turn around about a millisecond before to see what was trying to eat me, and _then_ get swallowed whole by a giant reptile.

It was disgusting. And smelled almost as bad. I gagged and was about to throw up, forcing my mind to think overdrive. I needed out. Ew,did this thing just burp? Ew. I was going to have to take about a million showers after this. I was sitting in a soup of digesting fish and other various things. I had found the 'powerful bad smell' Zia had been talking about, and I was literally at it's core.

Panic set in my mind as I turned and tried to free myself. I couldn't breathe, and I was suffocating in something. Carter Kane did _not _ want to be a stupid crocodile's lunch, not today.

Only one spell came to mind- one simple and would be quite messy, but hey, I was panicking. You would too if you were suddenly swallowed by a giant reptile. I needed to punch it in the gut and hopefully it would die or puke me out so I could escape and get rid of it. The only problem was I couldn't seem to find my wand in the mess of crocodile stomach.

I was so close to chanting the spell and punching my way to freedom when the stomach convulsed and I was shooting back up the direction I came- which smelled no less pleasant- and out the mouth. I hadn't even started the spell.

The huge reptile was thrashing and released me in an explosion of half-digested fish and stomach acids. It's tail slapped me across the stomach and sent me flailing across the muddy water and on my back. I managed to cough and force down the urge to throw up myself, and raised my head to see who (or what) had saved me from the stomach of the swamp monster.

The surface of the river churned with bubbles. The crocodile was gone, but standing in the marsh about twenty feet away was a teenage guy in jeans and a faded orange T-shirt that said _CAMP _ something. I couldn't read the rest. He looked a little older than me- maybe seventeen- with tousled black hair and sea-green eyes. What really caught my attention was his sword- a straight double-edged blade glowing with faint bronze light. I'm not sure which one us was more surprised.

For a second, Camper Boy just stared at me. He noted my _khopesh_ and wand, and I got the feeling that he actually saw these things as they were. Normal mortals have trouble seeing magic. Their brains can't interpret it, so they might looked at my sword, or instance, and see a baseball bat or a walking stick.

But this kid...he was different. I figured he must be a magician. The only problem was, I'd met most of the magicians in the North American nomes, and I'd never seen this guy before. I'd also never seen a sword like that. Everything about him seemed...un-Egyptian.

"The crocodile," I said, trying to keep my voice calm and even. "Where did it go?"

Camper Boy frowned. "You're welcome."

"What?"

"I stuck that croc in the rump." He mimicked the action with his sword. "That's why it vomited you up. So, you're welcome. What were you doing in there?"

I'll admit I wasn't in the best mood. I smelled. I hurt. And yeah, I was a little embarrassed: the mighty Carter Kane, head of Brooklyn House, had been disgorged from a croc's mouth like a giant hairball."I was resting," I snapped. "What do you think I was doing? Now, who are you, and why are you fighting my monster?"

"Your monster?" The guy trudged toward me through the water. He didn't seem to have any trouble with the mud. "Look, man, I don't know who you are, but that crocodile has been terrorizing Long Island or weeks. I take that kind of personal, as this is my home turf. A few days ago, it ate one of our pegasi."

A jolt went up my spine like I'd backed into an electric fence.

"Did you say pegasi?" He waved the question aside. "Is it your monster or not?"

"I don't own it!" I growled. "I'm trying to stop it! Now,where-"

"The croc headed that way." He pointed his sword to the south. "I would already be chasing it, but you surprised me."

He sized me up, which was disconcerting since he was half a foot taller. I still couldn't read his T-shirt except for the word CAMP. Around his neck hung a leather strap with some colorful clay beads, like a kid's arts and crafts project. He wasn't carrying a magician's pack or a wand. Maybe he kept them in the Duat? Or maybe he was just a delusional mortal who'd accidentally found a magic sword and thought he was a superhero. Ancient relics can really mess with your mind.

Finally he shook his head. "I give up. Son of Ares? You've got to be a half-blood, but what happened to your sword? It's all bent."

"It's a _khopesh_." My shock was rapidly turning to anger. "It's supposed to be curved."

But I wasn't thinking about the sword. Camper Boy had just called me a _half-blood_? Maybe I hadn't heard him right. Maybe he meant something else. But my dad was African American. My mom was white. Half-blood wasn't a word I liked.

"Just get out of here," I said, gritting my teeth. "I've got a crocodile to catch."

"Dude, I have a crocodile to catch," he insisted. "Last time you tried, it ate you. Remember?"

My fingers tightened around my sword hilt. "I had everything under control. I was about to summon a fist- "

For what happened next, I take full responsibility. I didn't mean it. Honestly. But I was angry. And as I may have mentioned, I'm not always good at channeling words of power. While I was in the crocodile's belly, I'd been preparing to summon the Fist of Horus, a giant glowing blue hand that can pulverize doors, walls, and pretty much anything else that gets in your way. My plan had been to punch my way out of the monster. Gross, yes; but hopefully effective. I guess that spell was still in my head, ready to be triggered like a loaded gun. Facing Camper Boy, I was curious, not to mention dazed and confused; so when I meant to say the English word fist, it came out in Ancient Egyptian instead: _khefa_.

Such a simple hieroglyph:

You wouldn't think it could cause so much trouble.

* * *

Funny how you just sit back in awe of the destruction you've just created and can do absolutely nothing to stop it. I regretted it the moment the words left my mouth. There was nothing I could have done to stop the spell, I had already summoned it on accident, so instead I got to reward my hero from the croc's stomach by giving him a not-so-friendly-or-gently slap in the face.

I'm not sure how far he flew, but it was pretty far. Usually when vengeful people feel anger and distrust towards other people they usually appreciate giving them a good smack to try and set them right.  
That didn't feel like this. It was just not my day, okay? It hadn't started out great, and it seemed like the universe was playing the usual game of '_let's see how horrible we can make Carter's life today?_'

Camper Boy flew across the water a good ten or fifteen feet before he was pulled on by gravity and slammed into the ground, and then skidded another five feet or so back to the general area he had been in when I first saw him. He didn't move much after that.

I almost dropped my _khopesh_ and wand, and rushed over to see what damage I had done. He looked knocked out cold, but for some reason he hadn't been blown up by my giant fist spell. The only indication anything had happened was the slow-forming bruise on the left side of his face. I took his hand and checked his wrist for a pulse, and was relieved to find one and not have the worry of killing an innocent bystander before dinner. Whew. What a relief. [That can be taken as sarcasm or not.]

I stood up and looked around. The crocodile was long gone, but I faintly remembered the direction Camp Boy had pointed in before I socked him in the face. Heading south, he had said. I looked back down at him and debated whether or not I should leave him. I felt guilty about that, I had been really harsh and then on top of that, I punched him in the face. The least I could do was help him back to safety. Or at least back to civilization, not in the middle of a desolate marsh.

I cursed my luck that Freak had taken off, so I hoisted him up and draped his limp lying arms over my shoulders and pulled him up. I grunted; he had more to him than he looked. His feet dangled loosely on the ground behind me since he was taller, and I adjusted my magic pack and put it on the other side of my waist. I held him by the wrists and started trudging south after our reptilian monster with an unconscious boy on my back in the afternoon sun.

Almost lunch, I thought tiredly, and wondered if I had any protein bars in my pack to sustain my growling stomach. I turned my head to the side to check on Camper Boy, who was drooling a little onto my shoulder. I stopped and dropped him back on the ground and frantically wiped it off my shirt. Gross. I picked him back up and kept walking, his feet barely touching the ground and leaving a swerved line trail from the direction we came. Hopefully no one was tracking us. I hurried along at that thought.

After a while I was too hungry to continue, plus the sun wasn't helping my head think, so I stopped by a cluster of pillow-looking rocks and stooped down to let go of the other guy and leaned heavily on another rock and sat down. I shuffled through my pack and was rewarded with a blueberry Nutri-grain bar, and I munched on that while I took a break. Walking through a swamp while carrying a dead weight body is exhausting. And when I say dead weight, I don't mean literally. I mean..._hopefully_ he wasn't dead.

When I finished my protein bar I scrunched it up and placed it back in my pack. Then I realized how filthy my hands were, and searched for a bottle of Germ-X to get rid of the icky guts/vomit I had all over my hands. I was unable to find any, so I looked around and wondered if I could wipe them off on the other guy's shirt. I had a feeling he wouldn't like that, so I wiped my hands on the side of my pants instead. I was going to burn my clothes when I got home.

I found a canteen of fresh water and then a plastic container of bottled water. I took the canteen for myself because it was mine and had all my Carter-germs on it, and popped open the top and drank from it. While I relaxed I was able to re-analyze the situation before. He had asked if I was a son of..._Ares_? I didn't know any Ares, but last I checked that wasn't my father's name. He was Osiris right now, and that was about as godly as he was getting. I vaguely recalled learning something about that name...but he was from another branch of myths. Greek or Roman, I think. Now I started to remember; Ares was the Greek god. He was the god of war.

I wondered what would have made him think I was a...god of war? Then it occurred to me; Horus was the god of war in my branch of myths, but to him it might be someone else. What had Uncle Amos said about other gods? Rival magic in the regions, he had warned us about that...I could only wonder who they might be. That couldn't be a coincidence; he thought I was the son of a war god in his mythology when I was a magician of the god of war in mine. Something smelled fishy here, and it wasn't just the fish I was covered in.

I screwed open the cap of the other bottle of water and dribbled some into his mouth. He had never given me his name; although I suppose that would be my fault, I had punched his lights out anyways. I cringed at the thought. Great job, really making friends. Maybe I could pass this off as a friendly thing; _uh, haha, you know us Egyptian magicians, we punch the daylights out of each other as a way of saying hello! Haha! So, uh, just don't say hello back._

I wasn't paying attention to my control of the water and had accidentally started pouring it down his cheek and his neck, making wet spots appear in his shirt. I went to grab something- maybe a piece of vomit-covered shirt I had ripped when I went through the crocodile's digestive system, or a towel in my magic pack of travel to wipe it off. Nothing is more uncomfortable than just being soaked with water bottle water.

I managed to find what looked like part of an old pillowcase that had been dipped in acid, burned on the edges and the color of whites in a washer with a red sock, but it would have to do. I wasn't expecting to see the other boy was starting to wake up; what gave him away was the loud uncomfortable groan that came from his mouth.

Immediately I was on my feet with my wand pointed threateningly at the direction of the noise, only to see it was the guy I had punched in the face earlier. He was blinking and rubbing his head, muttering under his breath and breathing out curses. He opened his eyes and was surprised to see me with wide eyes, then promptly rolled back and hit his head on a rock and knocked himself out (_again_).

I was still frozen in shock, but I had a new idea pretty quickly. This time I just splashed the bottle of water in his face, and that seemed to do just the trick. The bruise around his cheek and his eye suddenly shrunk and vanished, and I watched as he moaned again and opened his eyes, cautiously looking over at me.

"Ow," he complained, pointing a finger accusingly at me like he was a fifth grader that had caught a younger student stealing his table at lunch. "What was that for?"

"What was what for? The punch or the splash?" He just stared at me. The bruise around his eye completely faded, leaving a slightly pink area of skin but otherwise alright.

I gaped at him. "You- your face- it just-"

He rubbed the side of his jaw tenderly. "Did you punch me? I didn't even see you. How'd you do that?" He didn't sound angry (thankfully), just more curious and dumbfounded I had gotten him off guard. The look on his face looked a little surprised, as if holding his own grudging respect.

I plopped down on the rock opposite him. "Sorry," I said quickly. "I'm not very good at doing spells and it was on my mind so when I said fi-"

He kicked his leg at me and I cut the word off and bit down hard on my tongue. "No more magic," he said, leaning to the side and stretching. A trace of a smile ghosted on his face. "Although, that was pretty cool. You could be like a wizard or something." He frowned as if something occurred to him. "Hey, since we've been acquainted and you have properly introduced your hand to my face, what's your name?"

I wasn't sure what to say, so I stammered and looked at him. "Carter," I managed to get out clearly. "Carter Kane." Not sure what else to do, I held out my hand.

He looked at it suspiciously. "You're not going to punch me again, are you?" I must have had a pretty ridiculous look on my face, because he laughed. "It's a joke, I know you didn't mean it."

He shook it with a firmer grip than I would have thought. Considering I had just tossed him across a marsh, there were no scrapes on his face except for the bruise I had given when I punched him. "Percy," Camper Boy finally had a name besides Camper Boy. "Percy Jackson. What are you doing around these parts, Carter?"

"Searching for the crocodile," I wasn't sure if I should tell this guy the truth or not. "I got a message saying to search the rivers for a really smelly something and take care of it. Not sure why."

Percy sniffed his arms. "I don't smell bad, do it?" I managed a smile and he laughed good-naturedly. "Although I have been told I smell pretty bad before. Not as much as you do, anyways; you smell like you just went swimming in a sewer."

At that thought I wrinkled my nose. "Ugh, it smelled horrible in there. Have you ever been in the stomach of one of those? Disgusting."

He shrugged. "I don't remember if I've ever been fully swallowed by anything like that before. What were you planning to do in there? Wave your wand and just '_abra cadabr_a' your way out? And what was that thing?"

My mind tried to form answers for all those questions. "One; I was planning to punch my way out, and since I had the spell on hand I used it on you by sheer accident. Two; I don't use spells like that. Three; it was a crocodile."

He rolled his eyes at me. "Oh gee, I didn't realize it was a _crocodile_ when I stabbed it from behind. Thanks for clearing that up."

"I don't know what it is," I offered him my hand to help him up. "All I know is that it's made a horrible mistake of swallowing me, and now it has two powerful guys out to capture it. How did you know it swallowed me anyways? I didn't see you before I got swallowed."

Percy was searching his pockets for something. "What? I- Oh. I saw it from above. I was riding on my pegasus," he frowned and looked up. "Speaking of which, I can't seem to find at the moment. I hope the croc didn't eat him while I was out."

"Pegasus," I repeated. "Did you say _Pegasus_? As in-"

He waved the question aside with his hand. "No questions. I'm not saying anything to you until we capture this thing and kill it. It should have died when I stabbed it with my sword, but it just puked you up and ran off. I need to know how you were following it," he pointed at my khopesh. "And how you did that. Until then, I have all rights to remain silent. Or at least I think that's how it works."

"Um..." I didn't have a good answer for that. "Fine. We'll work together to get it. I have to return it to my base anyways for uh...well, you don't need to know that."

"Sure." He said, still looking through his pockets. "I want to get home and take a nice long nap anyways. The sooner I finish this and get it off my land the better. Just make sure it doesn't come back."

I nodded and picked up my magician pack. Then it occurred to me I had forgotten to pick up his sword when I had been walking. I cursed, and he looked at me. "Forget something?"

"Your sword," I said. "Sorry I forgot it was there, I just didn't see it when you dropped it and-"

He just grinned like a homeless person winning the lottery. "No worries. It will come back to me eventually. It always does." He peered around, and as owning his own navigation took on his direction of south and I had no choice but to follow.

_It always comes back to me_. That sounded like the cycle of reincarnation or the cycle of the gods. I didn't know what that mean, and honestly I didn't really want to find out.

* * *

Turns out Camper Percy's inner GPS didn't add in a few key factors; One was that we trudged through miles of muddy swamps and many areas of pot-holes where we fell in and had to crawl back out of holes of mud. My legs were crying in pain, and my shoes were completely ruined and caked with mud and weeds and stained with water and crocodile guts. It smelled worse as the day went on, with rotting fish baking out in the hot sun.

The second factor was that however he was tracking the monster, either the monster was smart or really stupid, because it lured us into a collection of haunted looking and probably dangerous woods.

Percy was looking at the clustered forest as if scanning the area. "You ready to take a trip to Grandmother's house?" He looked back at me. A smile twitched on his face. "Over the river and through the woods?"

I sighed heavily. We had been walking in silence the entire way, and the few times I tried to ask personal questions he got all defensive and went silent. Home turf. For all I knew he could be a crazy mortal with a sword he found lying around...but something told me he wasn't.

"To Grandmother's house we go," I said without enthusiasm.

He seemed just as reluctant to walk into the dark woods with me. "I have a bad feeling about this," I said.

He put his hands out in a shrug. "If the monster headed this way, we have to follow. We don't have much of a choice."

I scratched my head, trying to think. "As much as I would love jumping right into the middle of creepy dark woods with no backup, this is just a _really _ bad idea. Something _always_ happens. Like the horror movies? Don't they always send a message of 'not going in the deep dark woods all alone?'"

He stepped closer to the woods, making up his decision to go. I stuffed my wand away, and instead held my _khopesh_ in front. I figured I would have to use it to clear out plants in the way. "Well, at least you're not going in alone."

"Good point," Percy didn't wait for me and walked in through a veil of ivy vines growing off a tree. "With two people you don't have to die alone."

I was hoping that was a joke, and I followed into the marshy forest right after him.

* * *

I was given so many more reasons as we traveled through the forest of doom not to like it. From the trees various animals hooted and cooed and made strange noises all around. The canopy of leaves above us made the air cooler and protected us from the sun, but it also made it darker. I kept tripping over roots and vines as I walked, trying to slice past those and free myself to catch up to Percy.

He seemed to have no trouble passing through the forest, even with the swampy surrounding and the sticking mud. The mud just didn't seem to stick to him, so he walked like he was just floating over water. I, on the other hand, had to take every squelching step into the sloshy mud and then pull it back out. It was tiring me out very quickly.

Meanwhile, I was thinking the entire time about what Zia had said. She said to search the rivers for something with a strong smell, and something about crocodiles. Our message had disconnected before she could fully explain _what for_, but I figured it must be important. Now all I could think about was if _Percy_ was the one I was supposed to find. He hadn't made himself much of a threat, but there was something definitely strange about him. Plus he had been chasing the crocodile too- that couldn't be a coincidence, right? Maybe _he_ was the one I was actually trying to catch.

I hadn't realized Percy had stopped until I walked into him. He had held up his hand to motion for me to stop, but I had been thinking so hard I didn't realize he had stopped and walked right into him. I tripped over a root and sent both of us sprawling into the mud, him cursing loudly and me sputtering from swallowing some muddy water. I'm pretty sure Percy slammed into the front of a tree and went head-under the water.

He sat back up, rubbing his forehead and glaring at me. "What does-" He made the stop sign signal with his hand. "Mean to you?"

"Stop," I answered glumly. "Sorry. I didn't see you."

He made a face and stood back up. "We're close," he said. "I can tell. We just have to-"

I will never find out what he said we needed to do, because the next moment I was flying across the water and he was being swallowed by a giant crocodile; probably the same one that had eaten me.

I was fazed in shock, and fumbled for my wand. No spells were coming to mind, although the Fist of Horus was still waiting but I didn't want to use that. It had already backfired on me once today, and that was one time too many.

All I could think was one specific spell. Sadie loved using that spell, and that was pretty much all I got, so I summoned my wand and said the only divine word I could think. "_Hadi_!" Explode.

It was as disgusting as you can imagine. The crocodile exploded in a million bits of crocodile pieces; it was everywhere and completely nasty. I had managed to duck behind a tree, but I could hear the explosion coming from all sides. I peeked out and hoped that I hadn't blown up my companion in the process.

Percy was standing in the middle of it all, a completely horrified look on his face. He coughed loudly and motioned for me to come over. Then he yelled in my ear "SO WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?"

I winced and asked "A little quieter, please?"

He frowned at me. "WHAT?"

I shook my head. "The explosion must have made you go temporarily deaf. You'll regain your hearing in a minute."

He still looked confused. "I'M SORRY, I CAN'T HEAR YOU. COULD YOU SPEAK A LITTLE LOUDER?"

I just went quiet and waited for his ears to pop and return to normal pressure, and he pressed his hands against his ears and popped them back and forth. Finally he said in a normal tone "What was that?"

"Crocodile," I said. "It got you from behind. I blew it up."

Percy looked around at the mess. "That was _incredibly_ disgusting. But thanks."

"No problem," I said and picked up my dropped _khopesh_. "Guess we're done here."

He nodded. "The crocodile's gone, so I'll be heading back. Let's get out of this forest before something-"

Of course he had to jinx it, because a minute later another crocodile jumped out of nowhere. I yelled "Croc!" And he yelled curses. I didn't even had time to summon a spell, because while he managed to duck it was coming right at me.

I saw teeth. And then dust. Percy was standing over me, holding his sword in both hands like he had chopped the head off. I stared in shock. "Where did that come from?"

He smirked, and tapped something against the bronze sword and it shrunk into something smaller and stuck it in his pocket. "What, the crocodile or the sword?"

"Both."

Percy turned and started walking in the other direction, obviously to see if anymore crocs were hiding behind the glade. He held up his fingers and wiggled them while grinning. "Magic."

I snorted and stood up, following him. "Hey, wait!"

He glanced back at me. "What? That obviously wasn't the crocodile I was looking for. And now we know there's lots of them."

"How do you know that?"

"For one, there was two of them, which means there are more" Percy had somehow taken out his sword again and was slicing through a large cluster of vines. "Or they were protecting something. And obviously we're close. I need to find out what that is."

He took another swing and the vines cut free- leaving a crocodile sized entrance before us. The stench seemed to be coming from it, and I gagged. He held a grim expression on his face, and pointed down the tunnel with his sword. "You coming?"

"Yeah," I said and held my wand and my _khopesh_ in case anything else jumped out at us. "You're just taking a suicide move, we don't know what's down there."

By then my crazy risk-taking buddy had already stepped inside. "You're right, I don't. But I intend to find out."

* * *

I'm not sure how, but as we went further down the rotting cave it seemed to get darker and creepier by the minute. Percy's sword was glowing faintly and barely bright enough for me to see the floor ahead of me. Without it I would have kept stumbling into him.

At one point Percy came to a complete stop. My senses were just as active in the hole, so I was sure not to walk into him this time. He looked around and knelt to the floor. I didn't have to look at his face to know he was concerned.

"Is it just me," he started. "Or is the ceiling getting shorter?"

"Maybe you're getting taller."

"I'm serious." He picked his hand up and touched the ceiling. He had to bend his head a little, as it was touching the top. "It wasn't like this when we entered."

I shrugged. "Should give you the motivation to move faster then, find out what's down there before the tunnel crushes both of us."

He didn't say anything and kept walking. He kept bowing lower and lower as we walked until he was crouching. Then I noticed that my head was brushing the ceiling. So maybe it wasn't just him. Or we could both be hallucinating from the foul smell.

"Yeah, the ceiling is shrinking," I said as I was forced to crouch. "Maybe you're not so crazy."

He might have turned to me if the space wasn't so small. "You think?"

"Maybe if we-" I started to say, but then Percy was not in front of me and he was yelling. And then I was falling into something, and no longer compressed in a tunnel.

I hit into something cold and wet. Water, hopefully. The only problem was that when I had fallen, I didn't know which direction was up or down. I thrashed around for a few moments, panicking and unsure of what to do next. I started swimming in the direction I thought was up, but I was running out of oxygen and my lungs were burning. What a stupid way to die, I thought. The only thing I could think about then was all the things Sadie would have said at my funeral. _Well here lies my stupid brother who drowned because he couldn't tell up from down._ Sadie is a sentimental and caring sister that way.

Suddenly I was wrenched out of the water and felt unbelievably cold on my arms like someone had dumped me in a snowbank. It was darker now, and then I didn't feel the sensation of drowning anymore. I was still cold, and I opened my eyes and was surprised to see Percy staring into my eyes. The green in his eyes matched the green hue of the room, which looked like green fire coming off the walls. I coughed and felt like I was choking on water, so he stepped back a little and raised his hand. Water came gushing out of my mouth, smelly and dirty and disgusting as ever. I fell onto my side, spluttering and coughing. What annoyed me now was how I was cold and wet, and when I looked over at him he was completely dry.

"How did you-?" I coughed out at him, searching for my wand. "What-?"

"Saved you for the second time today," he nodded at me. "You're gonna owe me big time."

I ignored that and took a look around the room. The smell was still as pungent and made me want to throw up all over the stone floor, but I could faintly smell incense and oils. The green fire on the walls burned brighter.

Percy was watching the green fire with a deep scowl. "Greek fire," he muttered. "Don't touch that stuff. You don't want to find out what happens when you do."

I took his words to heart; _no touching the pretty green fire_. Got it. I think I would be able to keep that urge under control.

"So where are we?" I asked, finally managing to stand. "And what does this have to do with crocodiles?"

"It's a cult," Percy rubbed his hands together. "From what I can tell from the drawings on the wall," he pointed to the different drawings on the wall. "I can read the inscriptions on the top, but the ones on the bottom don't make sense."

I looked to what he was pointing at. He said he was able to read the top- which looked curiously like Greek symbols- but the bottom was in Egyptian. I could read a few things from that, pretty informative and helpful things like _human sacrifices with snake blood appeases the king_ and _crocodile tails on sale this week_! Helpful stuff. I think there was also a recipe for how to make a fish smoothie. I would have to pass on that.

"_Sobek_," Percy murmured, reading the lines. "Who's that?"

That immediately put me on alert. "Sobek is the god of rivers. I don't really like him that much."

He gave me a funny look. "Sobek is from what, exactly? I only know the Greek myths, I'm not so familiar with the others."

"They say he created the Nile with his sweat," I said. "Which would be..." I left the answer empty for him to figure it out himself.

That seemed to disturb him even more. "Figures," he said. "Egyptian gods. Greek gods. What's next? Norse gods?"

"Hope not," I said. "But you're Greek, aren't you? Is that why you called me a...'_halfblood_?'"

He shook his head vigorously. "I'm not telling you anything, I've saved your life twice, and you haven't quite given me a reason to trust you."

"I saved you once," I protested.

"I had my sword, I could have cut myself out." He said grimly. "All I know is that something is off here. Is Sobek usually a bad god?"

"When I met him he wasn't the most helpful of gods," I said and glanced at the hieroglyphics. At this point I had pretty much figured he wasn't just a regular mortal. There was something special about him, but not necessarily the magicians I was used to. "But in ancient times he was as important as any other god. I don't know about this place, but I have a feeling there's something _off _ about it. I don't think even that god would be involved in something like this."

Percy mulled that over for a minute. "Sometimes it's not the gods you have to be afraid of," he said. "It's the people who think they are doing the will of the gods. Sometimes it's not what they actually want."

With that happy thought, he leaned over the edge of the pool of water. I briefly saw a yellow eye that looked suspiciously like a crocodile come to surface and give me an ugly look before it ducked it's ugly head back under. "There's an entrance down there," he pointed to the middle of the mini-lake. "But I don't think you breathe underwater."

"Not a chance," I said. I don't even know how he could sense there was an entrance. I wasn't sure I wanted to find out."I can't go in there. I'll drown!"

"Well we need to get there to find out what's going on."

"There are crocodiles in there!" I flung my arms at him and waved them. "Are you crazy! We'll get eaten!"

He glanced at me with pleading sea-green eyes. "Got any magic to put them to sleep?"

"Well yeah, but-"

We were interrupted by a moving in the surface of the water. The surface rippled like something was rising from it, and I was unsurprised to see a crocodile rise from the midst. Percy drew his sword, pointing it towards the reptile.

What did surprise me was when it spoke. "_Son of Sobek_," it hissed. "_One of us, one of us, blood of the sea, one of us..._" It kept it's chant and cackled as it's entire body slowly sunk back into the water.

I glanced back at Percy, who looked freaked out. "O-o-h-kay. I've seen some crazy things, but that was the creepiest thing I've ever seen in my life. I'm kinda hoping we can go back now but..." He made a squeaky noise in the back of his throat like he had trodden on a dog toy. "Can you put those things asleep?"

"I can try." With my wand in front, I tapped the surface of the water and tried to remember the spell for soothing animals.

"_Hatep_," I said and tapped the water. It rippled out, the effect spreading through the water. Hopefully anything potentially life-threatening would stay peaceful for long enough for this guy to come up with a better crazy plan.

"There," I said and went from a kneel to a stand. "They won't bother us anymore. Any more crazy things to try?"

He seemed like he was measuring something in his head. "Do you trust me?"

"Not really, no."

"Good. Because there are crocodiles down there, and they won't stay liked that for long." He grabbed my arm and started pulling me towards the water. I started kicking my legs frantically, but he shook his head. "Trust me." I looked at him, and we plunged under the water.

I held my breath for as long as I could. When I finally couldn't hold it any longer, I gasped for air and expected to drown on the spot. Percy was still gripping my arm, but when I looked around we seemed to be in a tiny bubble of air. He was casually guiding us through the water, slowly getting deeper and deeper. A small glow of light sat in the very center where Percy had pointed, and I saw a tiny brass handle. I looked up and saw the vague outlines of the Greek fire above us, but Percy seemed preoccupied with keeping me alive.

We floated down to the bottom, where Percy used his magic water-controlling powers or something and pushed the handle open. Water gushed in, but he shoved me in the entrance and pushed himself in before he closed it.

I landed in water, but it was only a few feet so I got up and splashed around while looking for Percy. "Percy?" I whispered, calling out to him.

Something slimy and cold grabbed me from behind before I could even pull out my wand. "Don't move," something hissed. The tip of something pointy (probably a sword) pressed against my back. "Unlessss you wissssh to die."

I glanced up and saw the body of a man with scaly arms and legs, but the entire face of a crocodile. It didn't look natural, but I numbly moved with the group. More of the strange creatures became unstuck from the wall and fell into line. I couldn't see Percy.

I finally spotted him, being carried by two half-gators and held above their heads like a prince. He looked like he was about to bust out his sword, but the only thing stopping him was maybe the fact there was a sword about to pierce my body in half. So he didn't try anything crazy.

It was pointless to start a conversation with one of these things, and we walked in silence.

Well, I walked and tried to come up with a quick plan to escape, while Percy was carried off like the king and some sort of god. I tried not to feel too offended about that; he had an aura of power around him that I couldn't quite place. A small part of my head noticed the fact he looked very confused by this, but the smaller part wondered if this was just some elaborate plan to take me in and dispose of the leader of the Egyptian gnome. What had he said before? Something about water... I was slowly starting to get a map in my head, but for the time being I decided to ignore it.

The water dripped down from the sides of the walls and I passed so many corridors and hallways with dingy lighting that they all looked the same; I was starting to worry that even if I escaped, I'd never make it out of here.

The lizards hissed when we walked into some sort of grand opening. They dropped Percy onto some platform while I was left to be pushed into the corner and watch with some pointy-toothed scary looking crocodiles standing behind me.

"Uhm," Percy put his hands out awkwardly as if he wasn't sure what he had to do or if he wanted to cooperate. "Hi?"

"Touch the stone," one of the crocodiles hissed in a voice that made shivers go up my spine, as if one of their tails had crawled up my shirt. Oh. Bad comparison. "Touch it, Son of Sobek."

"And why would I do that?"

"The great rising," another said. "When the old gods will come and reclaim their world, and raise up a new world from the ashes."

"What about Sobek?"

Some of them hissed. "He has forsaken us! We used to be the greatest city of all time, when people worshiped the crocodiles who protected their river! Even the Greeks rivaled our city and feared our power, nicknaming us Crocodopolis for our abundance of crocodiles."

"Crocodopolis?" Percy repeated, trying to keep a straight face. I might have snorted, except the scary looking croc behind me growled so I kept quiet like a good prisoner.

"Yes, you Greek scum!" A smaller one stepped forward. "Spill your blood on the stones, call on your father, son of Sobek! The great rising will happen again, and you may rise with us or fall to the deepest depths of the Duat, further than even Tartarus can reach. If you don't, well, I can't say what will become of your friend, Carter Kane..." He shared a look to me, an evil grin on his face I could only say looked like a...crocodile grin.

Percy hesitated for a minute. I wanted to shout _Run! I'll be fine!_ but I couldn't find my voice.

A gleaming bronze sword appeared in his hands. "No," he said. He shared a look at me that translated to; _when it looks good, run_ and then back at the leader crocodile. "As tempting as that offer sounds, no thanks."

He slashed forward and the crocodiles retreated. He held the biggest one at swords length, an expression on his face so grim and determined, if I was the crocodiles, I would have been crawling away as fast as I could. "And I'm the son of _Poseidon_, not the son of Sobek. I don't think I like this Sobek guy very much, he hasn't helped me much today."

He charged the first row head on, leaving me to stand and blink for a minute before I realized we were fighting. My _khopesh_ had vanished in the onslaught of being captured, but I figured one of the crocodiles had it on them. I took out my sword and charged them.

Going into battle was different for me. I'm not sure if it was because I wasn't used to not having Horus in my head all the time, urging me on, or if it was because I was fighting with a total stranger that I had barely known for a few hours and he didn't use magic. He fought like he was invincible; and maybe he was, I saw a croc slam into him and rip across his chest, but he just pushed it off and left his shirt slightly ripped.

I slashed my sword (which looked very small compared to Percy's, and I was for some reason very embarrassed to have the smaller guns, if you get what I mean) across one of the lizards head, and the giant alter crown slid off his head. My khopesh slipped from his hands and I snatched it up quickly.

Percy was still fighting, but it was no contest. The crocodile army of Crocodopolis had him outnumbered at least thirty to one. One being him, and me taking out a few in the corners while trying not to be killed. He took out so many, but more kept coming from the water. I waved my wand around and summoned a few more spells (even the fist of Horus to punch out some crocs, but this was mostly just to show I used it against the bad guys too), but I was tiring quickly.

He turned to me with wild eyes like he was about to do something crazy. He jumped into the water as the group of giant crocodiles surrounded him and jumped into the water after him.

I jumped out of the way and ran for where he vanished. My sword was knocked out of my hands by a croc, but I managed to smash the face in with my own fist before I could retrieve it. My hand felt sore after that, but I tried to ignore it. "Percy!"

The water exploded, and Percy himself was riding a funnel of water that touched the ceiling. Spouts of water erupted from all sides of the walls, and one shot me in the face and sent me sprawling right into one of the crocodiles in a dress. (It was like a priest dress not a- nevermind.)

I guess I kind of deserved it, and the lizard screeched when I pressed the wand against it's neck and said the word for dissolve. It waved it's reptilian claws against my neck, but before it could do any major harm, the reptile became a pile of water and dissolved in my hands.

Percy swirled around in his giant typhoon for a few more minutes, throwing reptiles against walls, but it was mainly a distraction. All around me, bits of the ceiling came down in chunks and narrowly missed my head.

"Percy!" I yelled. "Time to go!"

He broke apart two crocodiles and spun several more times, but his hurricane was rapidly fading into mist. "I got that! How do you propose that!?"

More of the ceiling gave way. I was back to back with him now, him holding his sword out defensively while I tried to keep my sword and wand in front of me. My vision was getting strangely fuzzy, like I had been hit on the back of the head and I couldn't see straight.

"Nice fighting with you, Carter Kane," he said.

"Same to you, Percy Jackson." I said. And the thing was, I honestly meant it.

"The blood had been spilled!" One of the crocodiles that had been trapped in the corner bellowed, flailing his arms and tail around wildly where a chunk of wall had collapsed and held him captive.

"Not mine!" Percy yelled to me, slicing his sword wildly to keep the ring of crocodiles back.

"Then what-?"

I looked down and realized my hands were covered in blood. When I had been tackled by the reptile in the priest dress, it had racked my face with it's claws and...oh. Red tinted water ran down on the stones where Percy had originally been dumped. The stones for the sacrifice.

"It is not perhaps the sacrifice we wanted," the reptile said. "But a sacrifice nonetheless! The blood will taint this land for centuries, to show the gods that their own children will suffer by their hand! And they will blame him, and create war upon each other!" He grinned maniacally (and that looked so attractive on a six foot crocodile) and Percy tackled him from the front with an angry yell.

I dropped to my knees, suddenly feeling weak. The blood on my hand faded away, but I felt more like all the blood in my body was being drawn into the stones, as if some giant straw had leached itself to my bloodstream and was sapping my life away. The only thing I could think of was how similar it was to if a spell was still connected to me and unable to stop. I was dying.

"I just got out of a war!" Percy yelled and shoved the crocodile against the rest of the wall, and I heard something snap loudly. "I'm not going to fight anymore!"

"It's too late!" The crocodile laughed. "The temple is being called to the old gods, and it will be consumed for their greater use!"

"Not today," he said and sliced off the head in one wide arched swipe.

My wand and sword clattered to the ground. The room spun, the green fire on the walls dancing in my vision, creating giant white spots. Percy ran over to me and helped me up, but I couldn't see straight.

"Out," I managed, trying to focus on breathing. "We have to get out."

"I'm working on that," he growled, and summoned a wave towards us and pushed more of the crocodiles away from us. They pushed over, but then they rolled back over and kept coming towards us.

"No," I coughed. "No time."

"I can't leave you," he said desperately. Percy kept looking around for an exit sign, or something to use to help me, but my strength was rapidly fading.

"Up," I said weakly, and hoped he understood. My vision tinted red, and all I heard was a strange loud noise like gongs in my ears.

He yelled something else, but I couldn't stay awake. The temple was collapsing on all sides, and I pushed away something in my hands- maybe a crocodile?

Someone grabbed me from the side and held onto me tightly while water rushed in from all sides, and the temple gave way. Rocks slid under my feet and tumbled down- down somewhere dark, maybe a layer of the Duat that hadn't been properly covered or repaired, but I had a feeling that if I slipped, I wouldn't be coming out for a long time.

A loose tumbling rock hit my head before I blacked out, and the temple vanished into darkness.

* * *

I woke up with a killer headache, and a numb feeling all over my arms and legs. It took me a minute to figure out that I was (I wasn't having a good day today, okay?) alive, and second, I was not in the temple of Crocodopolis.

"Percy!" I yelled. It was dark, giving me the feeling it was possibly night already. I didn't like the feeling of a silent area in the dark, I felt so exposed and vulnerable.

I reached my hands around and found my wand and _khopesh_ sticking in the mud with me. Somehow they had survived the explosion that- how did I get out?

"Don't move," someone said from behind me.

I raised my head and saw Percy holding his sword pointed at my head. I relaxed. "Percy?"

Quicker than I thought, he had the sword held at my neck. "Okay," he said in a steely calm voice. "Now that we're done blowing up Crocodile city, I have some questions."

"So do I," I said. "Who are you?"

"I'm Percy Jackson." he said. "And it's probably better that you forget that. Knowing who I am won't make your life any better."

"Hey," I stood up shakily. He pressed the sword even closer to me, but lowered it to my chest. I stopped and stood halfway, on both knees and my arms out in a surrender. "We've both been through a lot today. And trust me, I've been through a lot this year too."

"Don't get me started," he grumbled. "This has been the hardest summer of my life. I should get back to camp-"

"Camp?" I felt a sudden icy feeling in my chest, and that feeling I had before with all the points in my head suddenly connected. "You're a Greek, aren't you?"

The sword point dug a little into my skin. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"The other gods my uncle was talking about," I figured that I was not in the best position to lie about anything. "You're the other camp."

"What other camp?"

"Your camp," I suddenly felt very tired, and it wasn't from the fact I had almost died from having my life sucked away or that I fought an army of crocodiles with another random guy. "We're not supposed to know each other."

"Or trust each other," he said.

"We fought together," I said. "If that's not trust enough not to kill each other, I don't know what is."

He reluctantly put his sword away and offered me a hand to stand up, but I had a feeling that he'd be trading back for his sword any minute. I shoved my wand and sword into my pack, which had somehow managed to stay with me during this entire hectic day.

"There's a reason we found one another," he said. "The gods don't make it an accident."

"Nothing is ever an accident," I agreed. "And since you're from the Greek camp- is there any other camp I should be worried about?"

"Not that I know of," he watched me warily while I leaned against another tree for support. "What about you?"

"We've got a lot more than one," I said. "I'm not exactly what you call a- what did you call me? A _halfblood_?"

He nodded. "Halfblood. Also known as a demigod." He seemed to be weighing how much else to say.

I figured I could share a little too. "Well, we're not really that. We're Egyptian magicians, you see. We basically go around summoning spells and fighting things that try to kill us."

He smiled, and you know, for a minute I could actually see he was a pretty cool guy, and we could even become good friends. "Sounds about right. We do pretty much the same thing; except we don't have that magic business. We're demigods, half mortal, half immortal. Children of the gods."

"Children of the gods-? Wait, that means you're-"

"Not a magician," Percy said, his green eyes glancing around the clearing as if something was about to jump out and attack them at any minute. "Like I said earlier. I'm not the son of Sobek, I'm the son of Poseidon. Where I come from, I'm a very rare person to find." He gave a small smile. "Something special. Something tells me you're pretty special too, Carter Kane. I have to get home now, my girlfriend is expecting me home before I get lost."

"Mine too," I said, suddenly realizing that when I got I would have two girls after me; first, probably Zia, and then my sister too when she realized how beat up I looked. I was gonna need some really long story time to explain all of this.

"Good luck," Percy said, as if he could read my expression. "I left last night before I went to sleep when I saw the croc on the outskirts of camp, she's probably worried sick. I didn't leave a note or anything, I didn't even go into my cabin."

"Sounds like you've got a lot of explaining to do when you get back." I said. "So do I, _ugh_, Sadie is gonna _kill _ me."

"Is Sadie your girlfriend?"

"_Ew_! No! She's my sister."

"You'll find that where I come, our immortal family is messed up so much it doesn't surprise me anymore." He whistled- a loud, brisk taxi cab whistle that sounded like a cab hail from the middle of a city.

Something swooped down and landed lightly in the mud, flapping it's wings irritably and shaking it's mane.

"Hey Blackjack," Percy greeted the horse. "And no, I do not have any donuts." He glanced back at me. "This is Carter. He's a friend."

"You can talk to the horse," I said. I'm not sure if I was more shocked, surprised, or awestruck. Maybe all of them.

The horse snorted loudly, and Percy petted it's head. "Don't be rude, Blackjack. He's had a rough day. Come on, let's get home."

Before he did anything else, he held out his hand. I took it to shake, but he pulled me in and hugged me. I tensed in surprise, trying to ignore the fact he smelled like salt and seawater.

When he pulled back, he frowned. "You just rubbed croc guts on my shirt, didn't you?"

"Payback."

He laughed and hopped on the back of the flying horse, and saw me watching the pegasus with a dumbstruck expression. "Do you need a ride?"

"No, I should be good. Thanks for..." I wasn't sure what to thank him for. Saving my life? We hadn't really talked, but I kind of liked Percy. I had a feeling he kind of liked me too, or at least enough that we weren't about to kill each other anymore. "Thanks for everything, Percy. We'll see eachother soon."

"We'll see," he didn't sound too sure of that. "Keep a lookout," Percy said. "Keep the city safe if you can. I have a feeling we won't be seeing each other for a while." I had a feeling we would. The sacrifice at the temple; something about the great rising. And now my blood was going to be used to create a war with the gods. Even then, I somehow knew we were going to wind up meeting up again soon; maybe fighting together, or fighting each other.

"I'll try," I promised. "You do the same?"

"Of course," the horse flapped his wings a few times. "Do me a favor and try to forget this ever happened, okay? I don't want any other gods- not just yours- snooping around our area. I won't mention this to my friends, and you won't mention it to yours."

"Can I at least tell my sister?" I asked. And even if I didn't tell me, she would force it out of me anyways by using my secret name if she had to. Although I didn't tell him that.

He sighed. "Just try not to draw attention to our area. I'm trying to keep it safe. Swear on it?"

"Swear," I swore.

The sky thundered in the distance, and Percy looked up. "Don't break that promise," he warned. "You'd be surprised how much a promise can mean."

I nodded. "I won't."

"Stay safe, Carter Kane. We may meet again in the future, or not," he spoke over the flapping of wings.

"Same to you, Percy Jackson," I waved, unsure of what else to do. The pegasus flapped the giant midnight colored wings and took off into the sky and disappeared into the stars; the pegasus, and Percy Jackson riding on the top.

They vanished so quickly, maybe because it was dark, or maybe because I was tired. A few minutes later I heard the familiar _FRREAAAAKKK_! and looked up in the direction of the sound.

"Freak!" I yelled up at him. "What took you so long?"

_FREEAK_! He screeched his name a few more times before settling on the ground in front of me. I clambered on top of him and held on. Petting his side, I told the giant griffin bird "Take me to the Brooklyn house, you lazy bird." Really, I was never so happy to see my old friend.

He called out softly once more before jumping into the sky. The moon rose over us, and I watched in the direction of where Percy and his pegasus had taken off.

"What a day," I said absentmindedly, stroking Freak's feathers. I wondered what I was going to tell Sadie and Zia; how I met a strange guy in an orange t-shirt and a giant bronze sword,a Greek camper from a strange camp not too far from us. And how we fought reptiles in the temple of Sobek, and how I punched him in the face within five minutes of us meeting each other.

In the night, I wasn't sure if I was just playing tricks on my mind, but I was sure I saw the dark shadow of a winged figure in the distinct light of the moon.

"Let's go home," I patted Freak's head as the city whizzed by beneath us. "Wake me when we're there."

I closed my eyes and fell asleep with the blinding city lights beneath me and the stars and constellations above.

When the Brooklyn eventually came into view, I was swarmed by my sister and Zia, who had personally returned just to make sure I was okay after I vanished for a whole day (I had a strange fluttery feeling in my stomach when I found out), and the two of them fussed over me and my concerning looking injuries with no explanation as to how I got them.

When they asked me what in the world happened, I decided I was pretty much done for the day. "In the morning," I promised. I wasn't even sure how I would be able to sleep with all those thoughts in my head; the strange camper boy, Greek gods, crocodiles, and the strange (but pretty cool) son of Sobek named Percy Jackson. "I'm not even sure you're going to _believe_ what a crazy day I had."

* * *

**_The End._**

* * *

_...for now._


End file.
